NZSA Webworkshops – a series of webinars to enable ongoing professional development

Featuring writers and industry professionals offering virtual workshops on topics such as self-publishing, romance writing, poetry, structure, short stories, pitching, contract advice, dystopian writing and the business of writing.

All Webworkshops are hosted on Zoom. Zoom is free to download

Learn more about what to expect in a Webworkshop in this article from the NZ Author magazine – Spring 2020

Webworkshops – 2025 season

Who Do You Think You Are? An introduction to characterisation with Charity Norman.

5:30pm to 7:30pm, Thurs, 6 November

Without characters, there is no story. But how to breathe life into them? In this workshop, we’ll be thinking about ways to create complex, real characters. We’ll share some ideas to help us know them better than they know themselves – to think their thoughts, to know their secrets, to see and hear them. How does the narrative voice fit into all this? And how can we manage the challenges of revealing character while maintaining pace?

Ex-barrister Charity Norman was born in Uganda, raised and worked in the UK, and moved with her family to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2002. Eight novels to date include BBC Radio 2 Book Club choices, Richard and Judy and World Book Night titles, finalists in the Ngaio Marsh and Australian Ned Kelly Awards, and have been translated into various languages. Remember Me won Best Novel in the 2023 Ngaio Marsh awards; her eighth, Home Truths, has been shortlisted in the Ned Kelly and Ngaio Marsh awards. Charity was recently named by The Listener as among the ten bestselling New Zealand authors of the past decade. She lives by the Tukituki river in Hawke’s Bay, with her husband and two warring cats.

NZSA members $35 Non-members $75
Register HERE

Please note that the Webworkshop is held on Zoom.
Bookings close 1pm, two business days prior to the workshop or when workshop reaches capacity.
If you are unable to make the live event, all attendees can access a recording of the Webworkshop to view for one month after it is aired live.

Past Webworkshops

Scott Bainbridge – Murder by death; an introduction to writing true crime.
Cassie Hart – Stand in the place where you are; an introduction to world-building.
Tracy Farr – Tell it Slant: Truth and lies, and using fact in fiction.
Madison Hamill – Reconstructing Vividness: Working with lost memories in personal non-fiction.
Melissa Addey – How to Make and Use Book Trailers.
Elizabeth Heritage – Book campaign planning: media releases, pitching to journalists and more.

“Can I just say that I am so enjoying these online classes – so much better than having to go out in the cold, wrestle for a park etc. Please keep providing these! I live part of the time on a farm and it is just so wonderful to be able to participate in these sorts of things when I am not in the city. Makes all the difference!”